


Competitive

by idola



Category: Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 11:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20834453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idola/pseuds/idola
Summary: Judar brings a cat home.





	Competitive

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by the 2018 new years postcard where judar and hakuryuu are living out the domestic bliss dream with their cat

“Judar,” Hakuryuu said five steps into their shared apartment, a finger pointing accusatively at a white lump of fur in the corner. “What is that?”

“A cat, duh.”

Hakuryuu had never considered himself an animal lover. Pets were a huge commitment in regards to both money and time, and frankly, he had better things to do than devote time to walking dogs, changing litter boxes, or brushing fur. He didn’t hate animals. They were just a waste of time.

That’s why coming home to a cat was so shocking.

“But… why?”

“It’s kinda cute, right?” Judar said, completely dodging the question.

“Is it a stray?”

“No, I got it at the shelter. Finding good cats outside is a myth. They’re always grungy and run off before you can get close.”

…So he tried strays first.

It was rare that Judar shocked him into speechlessness three years into their relationship, but this was one of those occasions. “_Why_ did you go to the shelter, exactly?”

“To get a cat,” Judar said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Hey, what’s for dinner? I’m starving.”

Admittedly, so was Hakuryuu. Judar was the type of person that was hard to get answers from more often than not, so when he acted like this, it was usually up to Hakuryuu to figure it out on his own. In this case, the logic was fairly straight-forward: Judar, despite never saying anything about it, wanted a cat. So he got one, again without saying anything about it. 

Judar often did things like that. Being free to do what he wanted was still novel to him in many ways, and Hakuryuu did get that, but he often wished Judar would tell him what he was planning on doing before he did it. Usually that translated into a lot of bickering and trying to get him to do so. Sometimes it worked. Often it didn’t.

“You’re the one who’s going to take care of it,” Hakuryuu said. “Not me.”

“Yeah.”

Judar worked three twelves, so he had a lot of free time. He certainly could afford to put in the effort for a cat. Hakuryuu would make sure he did, too. As he cut vegetables, he surveyed the room for signs that Judar brought home everything he needed to take care of it.

Litter box? Check.

Cat food? Check. Right on the counter, too. “Put away the cat food,” Hakuryuu said.

“Where?”

“I don’t know, you’re the one who bought it. Try the pantry.”

Judar sighed dramatically but did so. Hakuryuu wasn’t sure how much cat food cost, but as long as Judar payed for it, it didn’t really matter.

Motion out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. The cat’s head had popped up for it to yawn, pink mouth wide open. As it did so, it meowed. Yawn-meowed.

Judar laughed at the sound. “Man, isn’t it the cutest?”

Not really. “Why’d you pick this one in particular?”

“They said he was the meanest one there, but he didn’t bite me at all. So now we’re partners in crime.”

“You strike me as someone who would get a black cat,” Hakuryuu said. “Not a white one.”

“You’d know if you saw the rest of the lot. Sorry bunch of slackers. But not this guy.”

“All it’s done so far is sleep,” Hakuryuu said pointedly.

“He was running around playing at the shelter, so I guess he just tired himself out.”

Hakuryuu had nothing to say to that. To the cat’s credit, it did look fairly at home already. If Hakuryuu were suddenly dropped into a new environment with new people, he’d be a lot wearier than that cat. It was, all things considered, actually quite relaxed.

After dinner, Hakuryuu decided to try to interact with it. They’d be sharing a home from now on, so it was best if they could get along. And if Judar really did want a cat, Hakuryuu didn’t want to give him too much grief for it as long as he took care of it properly. He reached his hand out to pet the white furball in the corner of the living room.

It bit his hand without hesitation. Judar laughed.

Hakuryuu grimaced. Of course. “You _did_ say it was the meanest.”

\---

Hakuryuu’s first reaction to the cat had been that as long as Judar took care of it, it was fine. He tolerated it.

After a couple weeks he reassessed the situation.

He was used to living with Judar. Alone, without any roommates. When he got home, Judar always gave him his full attention. Even if he had work to do, Judar still lavished that attention on him more often than not. He would lay his head in Hakuryuu’s lap, talk to him about this or that inconsequential thing, and even play with his hair while he worked. 

It wasn’t that Judar was particularly clingy - he was just as likely to be doing his own thing - but it was one of those things that Hakuryuu didn’t appreciate until it was gone.

With a cat to occupy his attention, Judar spent a lot of time playing with it. A plastic stick with a string attached to the end was its favorite toy; it’d jump around the apartment, sometimes impressively high in the air, just to try to catch it. The cat also liked toy mice, especially when Judar sprayed them with catnip.

Hakuryuu had thought it was distracting when Judar lay on his lap while he was trying to work, but it was nothing compared to the level of distraction a cat jumping around was. What was worse was that it often bit his ankles while it was running around playing.

Judar thought it was hilarious. It was not.

\---

The cat bit Hakuryuu’s ankles when it wanted fed, scratched him when he tried to pet it, and never seeked out company.

In comparison it rubbed its cheeks against Judar’s legs with a meow when it wanted him to feed it, purred when he scratched its ears, and slept on his lap.

It lay on Judar at night when he was sleeping, and they always looked so comfortable. He wasn’t jealous of a cat or anything, but lately he felt a little like he was intruding when he slept next to them. It wasn’t because the cat was there. That in itself was fine - Judar liked it a lot, and he always looked like he was having so much fun playing with it. The problem was that the cat would glare at Hakuryuu while Judar lavished it with attention, like it was gloating. 

It was… admittedly difficult to not compete back.

It also felt a little like it was stealing his boyfriend and knew it.

Not that Hakuryuu was feeling lonely or anything, but it definitely felt like Judar’s priorities had shifted towards the cat. It was difficult to intrude when he was petting it, and kissing him when the cat was in the room was very awkward. It always was in the room, too. It was very attached to Judar and liked him to know it.

How was he supposed to know that a cat could have that much of an impact on their relationship when Judar brought it home?

Perhaps the issue was that Hakuryuu was used to communicating somewhat physically with Judar. With a cat between them, that became difficult.

It wasn’t that Judar was purposefully ignoring him, because he wasn’t. He was just as talkative as ever, even if a lot of what he talked about lately involved the cat. He didn’t lose interest in talking to Hakuryuu or even in touching him. Hakuryuu was just used to monopolizing his attention. There, he admitted it.

Judar wasn’t all that interested in anyone else. His one-track mind led to Hakuryuu from a multitude of places. Now it sometimes led to the cat.

Not that he was jealous. It was just… new. Strange.

And, to reiterate, the very worst part of it all was that the cat appeared to be acutely aware of its role in their relationship.

Hakuryuu had never spent time around cats until Judar brought it home. He hadn’t known that they were smart enough to pick favorites and be spiteful. What was Judar even doing right? He’d never owned a cat before either.

Hakuryuu had to be doing something wrong. So all he needed to do to fix the issue was, in theory, to do something right. Make amends for whatever way he’d slighted the cat when Judar first brought it home. Get on its good side. At times like this, he needed to research what was wrong. He picked a time when Judar was at home and pulled up the search engine on his phone.

The first hit, How to Pet a Cat: 15 Steps (with Pictures) sounded promising.

After reading it (twice, for good measure), Hakuryuu found the cat to put his newfound knowledge to the test. He held out a hand for the cat to smell without touching it.

It didn’t bite him. Just as cautiously as Hakuryuu reached towards it, the cat moved its nose to his fingers. Then it turned back away. According to the article, that meant he should try again later.

Aside from the realization that he could sit near the cat without being glared at or bitten, Hakuryuu did not make much progress on the first day. It was determined to not give in to his attempts to pet it, and he was determined to not mess up and get bitten.

It wasn’t long before Judar came home.

Judar was tired after his shift and went straight to sleep. The cat followed, rubbing against his legs as he brushed his teeth and curling up behind Judar’s knees the second he lay down.

It was too early for Hakuryuu to go to sleep, but he followed anyway. His bedside lamp did not bother Judar when he was trying to sleep. Sound bothered him, but not light - he slept easily with an arm over his face.

“You’re gonna sleep too?” Judar asked when Hakuryuu entered, leaving the door open just a crack behind him. He’d made the mistake of closing it before and was woken up by meowing at 2 am.

“I thought I’d read in here.”

“Huh, that’s rare.”

Judar wrapped his arms around Hakuryuu’s waist when he lay down, leaning his head on Hakuryuu’s thigh. He set his book on top of him.

“Heey.”

“You’re in the way,” Hakuryuu said bluntly. Without thinking. As soon as it was out of his mouth Hakuryuu bit his lip and internally chastised himself. He came in so that he could spend time with Judar. Being rude was counterproductive, even if Judar never acted like he minded.

“Huh, really?”

He moved his book to his other side to read and ran a hand through Judar’s hair, a quiet apology. “There.”

Judar was in some ways very easy to please. This was one of them. He leaned into Hakuryuu’s touch easily, eyes closed like he was comfortable enough to sleep despite their somewhat difficult position. If Judar were a cat, there was no doubt in Hakuryuu’s mind that he’d be purring right now.

He stole a glance at the lightly opened door to see the cat. It was glaring with open malice.

Who was laughing now?

Judar laughed.

“…What’s so funny?”

“You keep glaring at that cat like it’s stealing your boyfriend.”

Hakuryuu’s face heated up. “I’m not competing with a cat.”

“You sure?”

Hakuryuu pushed Judar half-heartedly.

“Oof. Hey, what’s that for?”

“I’m going to sleep.”

Maybe Judar was right. Maybe he _was_ competing with a cat. And losing.

This was the first time anything, human or not, had ever caught Judar’s attention so strongly during the course of their relationship, and it was weird. It was natural to be annoyed. That was what he told himself again and again as Judar played with the cat on the bed while he tried to sleep.

He knew that he was being irrational. It was just a cat. But he’d gotten used to Judar’s eyes always being on him. Perhaps that was wrong from the beginning. Expecting to be Judar’s whole world while spending most of his time at work was a bit hypocritical.

Maybe he should try to make more of an effort.

So he did.

Hakuryuu turned down his boss’ request that he take overtime the next day.

“What’s wrong? You always work overtime.”

“I have plans,” Hakuryuu lied. He wasn’t even out the door and guilt was already gnawing at his conscience. “I apologize.”

“N-no, it’s fine. I shouldn’t have assumed you’d always be ready for it.”

To Hakuryuu’s ears, it was a provocation insinuating that he wasn’t ready, wasn’t prepared for the responsibility. But no one else here worked as much as he did by a long shot. Working alone longer wasn’t any more productive than working regularly as a team.

\---

It was another few weeks of leaning the cat’s language before his research yielded any significant results.

But it did in the end, something Judar noticed as soon as he came home.

“You guys match,” Judar said, looking between Hakuryuu’s white jacket and the white cat in his lap with a pleased expression.

“It’s good that it’s white,” Hakuryuu said. “Otherwise I’d look as bad as you do, walking around with cat fur all over your black clothes.”

“Yeah, guess I should’ve thought that through,” Judar said. He’d gone through a couple cat hair removal brushes already, a trend that was set to continue for the foreseeable future.

Hakuryuu smiled. Judar would’ve noticed that the first time he played with the cat. He was particular about his clothes and wore a lot of black. Hakuryuu was also particular with his clothes, but preferred white. So he didn’t have nearly the same issue as Judar.

It still got all over his nice pants, though.

Judar lay next to him and wrapped an arm around Hakuryuu’s waist. The cat purred just from his proximity.

“Ha,” Judar said. “He still likes me better.”

“…Shut up. I’m getting there.”

**Author's Note:**

> i lied i actually just wanted to write hakuryuu acting like a baby


End file.
